The Washington, D.C., chapter of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International today invited hospitality professionals from throughout the metropolitan area to attend its annual State of the Industry program Aug. 9 at the MGM National Harbor hotel in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
The program, designed to help area hospitality sales, marketing and revenue-management professionals prepare their plans and budgets for 2019, will feature Jennifer Hill, Kalibri Labs vice president of business development; Mark Woodworth, CBRE Hotels America Research senior managing director; Elliott Ferguson II, Destination DC president & CEO; Robert Gilbert, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International president & CEO; and John Hach, TravelClick senior hotel industry analyst & advisor.
The State of the Industry event will be hosted by MGM National Harbor and cosponsored by Kalibri Labs, CBRE Hotels America, Destination DC, TravelClick and RDR PR LLC. Registration and a networking reception will begin at 4 p.m. The cost is $40 for HSMAI members and $60 for nonmembers. Click HERE to register.
“Our panelists will present the facts, figures and insights that hospitality professionals need to prepare plans and budgets for 2019,” said Ellen Wilson, HSMAI Washington DC Chapter managing director. “The State of the Industry is our most popular program of the year. I encourage all area hospitality executives to join us for this valuable event.”
About the Panel
Jennifer Hill
Vice President of Business Development, Kalibri Labs
Jennifer Hill specializes in revenue management, using a profit-based model of successful collaboration with sales to achieve optimal business mix. She relies on this experience to educate and inform hotel owners, operators, asset managers and other industry decision makers about Kalibri Labs’ suite of hotel revenue strategy products, championing the Hummingbird PXM platform. Hummingbird PXM is designed to help key stakeholders better evaluate and predict revenue performance in a more granular and effective way than ever before.
Prior to joining Kalibri Labs, Hill was the regional director of revenue and distribution for Highgate, an industry-leading investor and manager of hospitality assets. In this role, she helped lead the revenue-strategy efforts for several Washington. D.C.-area hotels. She has over 17 years of direct hotel operations and revenue experience at branded and independent properties in Washington and New York as well as airport, suburban and city-center markets.
Hill is the immediate past president of HSMAI Washington DC’s Advisory Board. She continues to serve on the board, helping deliver relevant and engaging education content to the greater Washington hospitality community. In 2017, HSMAI recognized Hill as one of the Top 25 Minds in Sales, Marketing and Revenue Optimization and awarded her the Revenue Management Professional of the Year award in 2014.
Hill earned a bachelor of arts degree in American history at Mercer University, Macon, Georgia, and earned HSMAI’s Certified Revenue Management Executive designation, known as CRME.
Mark Woodworth
Senior Managing Director, CBRE Hotels Americas Research
Mark Woodworth, national practice leader of CBRE Hotels’ Americas Research, has over 35 years of hospitality industry experience, in both a consulting and hands-on operational capacity.
Woodworth has managed and conducted consulting assignments, involving both the public and private sectors, throughout the U.S. He has worked for the industry’s leading lenders, developers, chains and management companies in all aspects of operations, development and financing.
Prior to joining CBRE Hotels in July 2014, he was president and national practice leader of PKF Hospitality Research and a member of the executive committee of PKF Consulting USA.
Earlier, Woodworth served Coopers & Lybrand LLP as a partner and industry chairman of its hospitality industry consulting practice and was a senior principal with Laventhol & Horwath, responsible for lodging and real estate consulting services in the Southeast.
He serves on the board of the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Finance Committee of the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta and served for two terms on the Cornell University Council. He is a member of the Conference of Business Economists and completed a three-year term on Cornell’s Center for Hospitality Research board of advisors.
Woodworth earned bachelor of science and master’s degrees at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, Ithaca, New York. He served on the faculty of the Center for Professional Development at Cornell for 12 years, where he continues as a guest lecturer.
Elliott Ferguson II
President & CEO, Destination DC
Elliott Ferguson, a 27-year veteran of the travel and hospitality industry, is president & CEO of Destination DC, the District of Columbia’s official destination marketing organization.
He leads Destination DC’s efforts to generate economic opportunity through meetings and tourism, overseeing the organization’s convention and tourism sales, marketing, finance and business development operations.
Ferguson began his tenure with Destination DC in 2001 as senior vice president of convention sales and services and has served in current role since 2009. Prior to Destination DC, he was vice president of sales for the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau and director of sales for the convention and visitors bureaus of Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia.
Ferguson earned a bachelor of arts degree in marketing and business administration at Savannah State University. He is a member of the American Society of Association Executives, Professional Conference Management Association and Destinations International, among other industry organizations.
Ferguson currently serves as the first vice chair of the U.S. Travel Association board and is a member of the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board and Hospitality Alliance of Washington, D.C. He serves on the boards of the Smithsonian National Zoo, DC Jazz Festival, Capital Partners for Education, United Way of the National Capital Area and the Ryan Kerrigan “Blitz for the Better” Foundation. He also is an active mentor with Capital Partners for Education.
Robert Gilbert
President & CEO, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International
As president & CEO of the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International, Robert Gilbert has guided the organization through a dynamic and exciting period of change as the 7,000-plus-member organization has been re-established globally to grow the revenue for hotels through sales, marketing and revenue optimization.
During Gilbert’s tenure, HSMAI has achieved tremendous success with a number of initiatives ranging from the development of expert communities in the areas of digital marketing, resort
marketing, and revenue management; the development of HSMAI University’s webinars and certification programs; and global expansion through the formation of HSMAI Global and regional development in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
Gilbert earned a bachelor of science degree at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, Ithaca, New York. He has been a member of HSMAI since joining the student chapter at Cornell.
He is a frequent guest lecturer at Cornell, past chair of the Events Industry Council and has served on the American Hotel & Lodging Association board and Travel and Tourism Coalition of the U.S. Travel Association. He also serves on several hospitality and hotel management school advisory boards.
John Hach
Senior Hotel Industry Analyst & Advisor, TravelClick
John Hach, TravelClick’s senior hotel industry analyst and advisor, joined the company in 2004 and has over 38 years of e-commerce marketing experience in the travel industry.
He is a regular industry speaker whose insights and perspective have been featured on CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg and in The New York Times.
Hach is a graduate of Chicago State University and has served as a guest lecturer and advisor at Roosevelt University, Chicago; Boston University; and Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, Ithaca, New York. He was chairman of the Florida Commission on Tourism and as executive director of the California Tourism Industry Association.
About HSMAI Washington DC Chapter
HSMAI Washington DC Chapter is an affiliate of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International, an individual membership organization based in McLean, Virginia, composed of more than 7,000 members worldwide, with 40 chapters in the Americas Region.
HSMAI is committed to growing business for hotels and their partners and is the industry’s leading advocate for intelligent, sustainable hotel revenue growth. The association provides hotel professionals and their partners with tools, insights and expertise to fuel sales, inspire marketing and optimize revenue through programs including the Adrian Awards and Revenue Optimization Conference.
Click HERE to join HSMAI. For more information, go to www.hsmaidc.org
